Who would know in a rush?

“The Yes Men” United States New York Times, July 4, 2009, offset litho, Lent by the artists

     (PNAN-ME) Opening Saturday, October 30, in conjunction with “John Haberle: American Master of Illusion” currently on view through December 12, “False Documents & Other Illusions” is the second Circa series, featuring works by 13 contemporary living artists in Maine and beyond. Showcased will be 32 works offering a spectrum of approaches to illusion, whereas Trompe l’oeil, meaning to “fool the eye,” in the traditional sense usually references painting in which objects appear to be real rather than rendered.

     The exhibit runs through January 2, 2001 with artists: Susan Collis, Marti Cormand, Carly Glovinski, Carl Haase, Duncan Hewitt, Nina Katchadourian, Angela Lorenz, Vik Muniz, Ken Solomon, Molly Springfield, Mary Temple, Steve Wolfe, and The Yes Men.

     Circa is made possible by S. Donald Sussman and the corporate support provided by The VIA Group, enables the Portland Museum of Art, which was founded in 1882, to hold claim as Maine’s oldest and largest public art institution in operation today. The Museum’s buildings unite three centuries that showcase the history of American art and culture, with a collection of more than 17,000 objects, from decorative to fine arts dating from the 18th century to the present.

“Vik Muniz, Verso” (The Winner in Broad Jump, Jesse Owens), 2008, mixed media. Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., NY.

     Works by artists such as, Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, Rockwell Kent, John Marin, Louise Nevelson, and Andrew Wyeth, as well as the major European movements from Impressionism through Surrealism are represented by the Joan Whitney Payson, Albert Otten, and Scott M. Black Collections, which include works by Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, René Magritte, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, and Auguste Rodin.

     If not the latter, the Elizabeth B. Noyce Collection, a bequest of 66 paintings and sculptures, has transformed the scope and quality of the Museum’s American collection, bringing to the Museum its first paintings by George Bellows, Alfred Thompson Bricher, and Jamie Wyeth, and adding masterpieces to the collection by Childe Hassam, Fitz Henry Lane, and N. C. Wyeth.

     Furthermore, PMA has constantly changing educational programs, family festivals, lectures, art classes, musical concerts, bookgroups, art camps, gallery talks, and much more. Let your fingers take a cyber trip to this ‘Jewel in the North’ at www.portlandmuseum.org.